First-Class Matches West Indies 1989/90 to 1998/99

31 West Indies in 1990/91 The challenge facing the West Indies Test side in 1990/91 was to take on probably the two ‘next best’ sides in the world: Pakistan away, and then Australia at home. That they survived with their unbeaten series record intact confirmed their continuing right to the title of unofficial World Test Champions. They took on Pakistan in a three-match series late in 1990 without Viv Richards, who was recovering from surgery; Desmond Haynes stood in as captain. Their opponents were also deprived for part of the series of one of their strongest resources, as captain Imran Khan had to play the first two Tests as a batsman only. For the third time in a row, the two sides shared the series 1-1, matching similar results in Pakistan in 1986/87 and in the West Indies a year later. For the West Indies, the 1990/91 series began with a defeat by eight wickets at Karachi, despite a century from their stand-in captain. The tables were turned at Faisalabad, where West Indies were victorious by seven wickets in a low-scoring game in which none of the four innings reached 200. West Indies also had the upper hand for most of the drawn final match at Lahore – a game most memorable for marking the Test debut of 21-year-old Brian Lara. Carl Hooper’s snaring of Masood Anwar on the last day at Lahore was the first Test wicket taken by a West Indian spinner after 148 wickets by quick bowlers, spread over nine Test matches, since Viv Richards had taken the wicket of Dilip Vengsarkar at Port of Spain in April 1989. The five-Test series at home against Australia was won by a margin of 2-1, with the two undecided games both badly affected by rain. The margins of victory by either side in the three other Tests were decisive: West Indies won the second and fourth Tests by ten wickets and 343 runs respectively, while Australia secured a 157-run consolation in the fifth Test at St John’s. The series with Australia marked the beginning of the end of the era of great West Indian batting line-ups that had been so dominant over the previous 15 years. The match at St John’s was Gordon Greenidge’s 108th and last Test, which he ended with an innings of 43 made on his 40th birthday. This was also the final home Test series for returning captain Viv Richards. Greenidge went out in style with a career-best 226 in the previous Test at Bridgetown; by contrast, Richards ended his home Test career with innings of 0 and 2 at St John’s – as close as he came to a ‘pair’ in his entire Test career. During the domestic season Richards also played his last first-class match for the Leeward Islands, but his presence was not enough for his team to retain the Red Stripe Cup that they had won for the first time the year before. Top honours this time went to a rampant Barbadian side, who won four of their five matches while no other team could win more than one. In a tight race for the other high placings, the previous season’s bottom-placed side, Trinidad & Tobago – now captained by Gus Logie after the one-season experiment with Brian Lara - secured the runner-up spot by a single point ahead of Guyana and the Leewards, who shared third place. Trinidad’s extra point came by virtue of a 68-run first-innings lead in their eventual nine-wicket defeat by Barbados, for whom Haynes and Carlisle Best both made centuries as they made light of a fourth-innings target of 281. It was not surprising that a Barbadian headed the run-scorers in the competition. Desmond Haynes’ tally of 654 runs, at an average of 109.00 and including a record four centuries, was a new competition record, beating Ralston Otto’s previous figure of 572 in 1983/84. More surprising was the fact that the competition’s leading wicket-taker for the season was a slow bowler, Guyanese off-spinner Clyde Butts, who took 26 wickets at an average of 23.23.